Die Once, Live Again? What The Hell?
by iLuke
Summary: After dying to the Akatsuki, Chiyo attempts to resurrect Gaara, but fails and he becomes a Plus. Hitsugaya Toshiro is sent to check in the ninja world and finds Gaara the source of a major power disturbance. Welcome to the Gotei 13, Gaara-taichou!
1. Hitsugaya Toshirou Enters!

**REUPLOADED: Because it was out of character and I didn't like it, and then it was pointed out by a reviewer. Things have been edited.**

--

What if Gaara was incapable of being resurrected by Chiyo-baasama when the Akatsuki got to him? And what if, noticing the spiritual disturbance caused by Gaara after death, Soul Society sent Hitsugaya Toshirou to investigate?

--

Gaara felt so cold, so stiff...his vision was black, his body was motionless, and he could only hear a soft murmur of voices, the scream of a chakra full of malice and sounds of screams and sobs...he silently cursed his weakness, and wished so badly to be able to see the light.

"Shukaku?" No matter how much he called out to the darkness, he could not find the demon. It was empty, and he longed to find his inner world, the desert in which he sought the surprising benevolence of the sand demon that had grown a fatherly side for him, where he sought the warmth of the large arms of the tanuki, the calming breaths and the deep voice which calmed him so...he yearned for it so badly, and yet he could not find it. He was alone...

He was dead? Yes, he was no longer living...the demon was gone, all that he worked for was gone, and he could never retrieve it in his minds eye.

And then something was flowing within his veins, chakra, but not his own...it was weak, but for a second he was hopeful that it would reach his heart, and start making it beat once more, letting him live again, but his body was rejecting it...and him. He was forced into a sitting position with a pained gasp, and the sound of a rattle of a chain was the first thing of clarity that reached his ears, and he saw a wide-eyed Chiyo at his side, and a sharp gasp brought his attention to the surrounding ninja from Konoha, and Naruto had a happy expression, but something seemed off and he knew it. He slowly got to his feet, and then looked down, and a look of horror crossed their faces to see that Gaara's _body_ lay on the ground.

"I...What the hell?..." The chain on his chest was broken, and his breath quickened with a morbid realization as more shinobi arrived.

"Is he...?"

"I am sorry, Gaara..." Chiyo murmured softly. "I have failed you yet again."

"YOU MEAN HE'S STILL DEAD?!" Naruto's voice was now at a screaming level as Gaara now stumbled away from his body, unable to control his uneven breaths.

"B-b-but...I-I'm standing!" Gaara tried to reason with this news, and he suddenly felt light-headed. "How can I be standing and not standing?...How is this possible?" Temari and Kankurou stepped forward, and then saw his body, and saw him.

"Gaara...You...You're dead?"

"I...can't be dead...I'm standing, breathing, talking, and you can see me! You all can see me, right?!" Nods were given. "I...I don't know anymore..." However, eyes widened as something seemed to well up in his throat his body trembling and something shifting under his skin. The feeling...it was just like he was transforming into Shukaku...what was he turning into?...but it couldn't be good. It was painful, and he didn't want it. And before he knew it he started a loud scream before it was muffled when a white substance shot out of his mouth from inside his throat and began to cover his face. Eyes wide, he gripped the sides of his head, fading from the outside world and recoiling back into himself. Even as he opened his eyes and noticed he was no longer aware of the outer world he felt a horrible burning in his chest, and his skin began to feel clammy and cold to the touch.

"W-what's going on?..." He was looking around in the desert, and felt a familiar presence behind him. He looked to the sides of the desert and noticed that they were quickly disappearing.

"**Why am I here?**" He turned to see the large tanuki behind him with a confused and frantic expression on his face.

"Shukaku?! You're back?!"

"**I have no idea...But- I feel like I'm supposed to tell you something.**" The tanuki murmured. He was very confused, to say the least. "**Shukaku doesn't seem like my name anymore. Its really, really weird.**"

"Then...what IS your name?"

"**It's like...a new name. A command name...it**** is....**"

"What?"

"**My "command" name is-**"

--

The ninja all were on their knees, suppressed by an inhuman energy coming from the late Kazekage. There was a strange mask forming on his face, but his body remained the same. And someone watched, from a distance, hand on the hilt of a sword in case things got out of hand...but it was odd really, because the current situation that the red-headed ninja was in was similar to that told to him of a certain orange haired associate of his. And then the shadowed figures's eyes widened as they saw the sword forming in the hand of the male, the hole in his chest disappearing.

"Roar across the endless deserts and reconcile in the endless destruction with your brethren...Kazesuna no Tanuki..." The sword glowed brightly, before transforming into a black spear with multiple blades at the end, with a strange marking. The butt of the spear was colored purple, and slowly faded into thin tendrils of the color as the sight progressed upward.

"W-What?...That's- Shukaku's spear!" One ninja shouted, alarmed. Temari shook her head as Gaara moaned lightly, making no move to remove the fully formed mask that resembled the demon Shukaku's face and instead voting for the alternate "fall forward flat on your face from exhaustion".

"No...Shukaku's blade is made out of _sand_....just what did he become? A spirit-ninja or something?"

"Wrong." Now the shadow figure revealed himself.

"What would you know, you're just a kid!" Naruto shouted. The white haired, teal eyed, tan skinned male was indeed short and child-like, but he wore a black shihakusho and a white haori.

The boy said nothing, before calmly shunpo'ing to the red-head's side, rolling him over and removing the mask, oddly looking like a tanuki. He drew his sword out, turned it around so that the hilt was pointed towards his forehead, and slammed it down on the unconscious spirit's forehead as the butt of the sword began to glow a bright blue, his form quickly deteriorating before fully disappearing. And then he blocked a chakra charged fist from Naruto, who had charged in a blind rage.

"WHY DID YOU SEND GAARA AWAY!?" Naruto howled angrily.

"Its my job." He said simply. He was punched in the face.

"HE STILL HAD TO LIVE! HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! IT WAS BECAUSE OF HIS FUCKING VILLAGE THAT HE WAS CONDEMNED AS A JINCHUURIKI! HE WAS LIKE ME!" Naruto continued to scream, his aura changing to the Kyuubi. But he was instantly lashed down by an onslaught of ice from the tip of the boys blade.

"I pity you." He said. "But he was still dead. He couldn't be here anymore."

Then he turned to leave.

"Remember this name should we meet again. Hitsugaya Toshirou."

And then Hitsugaya entered the portal he opened with his blade.

And only then did Naruto realize it was snowing.


	2. Family, Soul Society? What is the truth?

Meanwhile, Gaara found himself waking up next to a large river in an unfamiliar area. People stared at him in a strange manner, and he looked down at his own clothes before noting that of the other people. Of course he was being stared at strangely, his outfit was much different. It was hot on that particular day, and he was hungry. He took a peek into the river and saw several fish swimming in it, and people were attempting to fish to no avail. Frowning, he glared at the water, and a spike of sand jutted upwards, impaling a fish in the process. Eyes wide, Gaara looked to his hand - he still had his control over sand?

The villagers looked at him uncomfortably, envying the fact that twenty minutes later he had a large stack of fish, and he was still continuing to successfully get at_least_ one fish each time a sand spike rose up. It was extremely unusual for them to see this, but did not openly attack due to seeing that the male was not a death god. However, they eyed the sheathed blade at his side with minor trepidation. Then he noted how a boy was trying to get close enough to steal one of the many fish he had collected.

"No, I won't hurt you, you can take a fish if you so desire." Gaara spoke loudly, and the boy jumped.

"You really mean it sir?" Gaara turned to give a wrinkled nose at the "sir".

"Please don't call me sir. It makes me feel old and I only recently died." The boy had wide eyes.

"How old are you?"

"I'm only fifteen." He replied simply, before returning to the task at hand. "If those of you who are hungry wish to eat some of the fish I've caught, go right ahead. I don't care." And he simply ignored the fact that a large amount of people, both young and old looking, dove at the fish and gave him many thanks.

"What's your name?" The boy who had been trying to sneak some fish asked, sitting next to him.

"Gaara."

"What, no last name?" He asked.

"No, my father never gave me access to his last name, and called me "Sabaku no Gaara"."

"Gaara of the Desert? Why such a name?" And now a woman sat to his side, also containing a morbid fascination with the recently dead stranger.

"Because he hated me." Was the stiff reply before a particularly large spike rose, ripping through quite a few fish.

"But why did he-?" The boy's words were cut off as the woman covered his mouth.

"Don't ask such an unfeeling question! This is his past-"

"He hated me because I was nothing but a weapon to him, to take the lives of his enemies...all while taking the life of my mother upon birth."

"...What a horrible fate..." The woman muttered softly. "And seeing as it is only fair, my name is Miyako."

"Masahiko." The boy spoke.

--

The next day Gaara woke with a start, feeling slightly feverish as he rubbed his forehead to remove the rather painful head ache as he sat up, feeling unusually stiff. That was before he looked around and realized he wasn't in his room. Looking around, the hut he was currently taking residence in seemed rather low quality, and then he spotted two other people sleeping across from his side of the hut. He then remembered that he was dead, and had met them the day before when he was fishing.

"Thank you for your hospitality." He wrote in the ground where he slept. "But I am a person of solitude, and also I wish not to impose or anything." Then he left taking a few fish with him in a pocket he made with his coat, which left him in burgundy pants, a black t-shirt that actually showed how slender his build actually was, a vest, and shoes. But as he traveled, he was lost in thought, and thus did not notice the man that he inevitably bumped into, Gaara falling flat on his backside and the other stumbling back before looking to each other to apologize. Instead, shock was in and a whole different word came out of the standing male's mouth.

"Gaara?" The voice sent chills of horrified recognition down his spine as he saw a tall man who looked like a copy of his brother Kankurou. His father...?! He shot up, panicked, as the man began to walk towards him. The blade was taken with him, due to him having attached it to his side with a strip of fabric that he tore from the bottom of his trench coat, before he had transformed it into the pocket he had been using. He did not have his gourd on him, but he didn't care either. Soon he rested against a tree, sliding down due to opting a change of standing to sitting.

"Why-...Why is he here...?!" Gaara whispered harshly to no one in particular. He rose his fisted hand - the one that was not clenching at his heart - and rubbed the tears away as unwanted memories, long since sealed off, rose back to the surface. In the midst of his crying he did not notice the sandy-haired woman who cast her gaze upon him, simply walking by, before gasping at noticing his familiarity.

"Gaara-kun?" He went completely rigid as his eyes flew up, meeting that of a woman he'd never met but he'd seen so many times...a copy of Temari virtually. But he had to be absolutely sure, for the woman was not staring at him in hatred...rather, in a morbid mix of happiness and sadness.

"How do you know my name?" He asked warily. Silently he cursed his current emotional weakness, but knew that partially to blame was the fact that he _died_.

"I named you..."

"...M-Mother?" He shook his head and tried to back away in an attempt to escape further before remembering he was against a tree.

"Shh, I'm not going to hurt you Gaara..." As she settled in front of her son and enveloped him in an embrace, she spoke soft, warm, soothing words, "Shh...don't cry...don't cry, little one..."

"W-What? Y-you...why? Why?!" His breath was once erratic and the sand was restless beside him, his nervousness having automatically created it for a barrier to protect himself from the outside. Too much, too soon, he couldn't handle how his world had been drastically shaken. "Y-Ya...Ya-_He_ said...a-and... Father...also...that you...h-hated me..."

"Who said? Yashamaru? Brother?" Her grip tightened around him as her voice lowered drastically. "You heard _them_ say it...but did you ever hear me? No."

"What I hated wasn't you. I cursed the village upon my death because its actions left you alone to suffer with the beast they sealed away inside of you...and it sacrificed two lives for the sake of its prosperity, which it already had. Your father had no intention of raising you normally...he told me that he needed to form you into the perfect weapon, to raise you to not feel any emotions like remorse, regret, or compassion. He failed, and instead created a monster in the place of the weapon he yearned for to protect that which he believed dear. I hated the creature inside you that would lead you to become a monster in your heart...Because I always loved you. Brother had a personal vendetta against you for taking my life...which was foolish. You were not the one responsible...if anything he should have killed my husband. Yes, I did name you Gaara out of hopes of a message, but not the way that my brother explained. _Love yourself _before others_ only_ if to allow yourself to survive in the harsh world that was our reality. And upon my death, I was arrogant and young, and thus forced upon you my wish for revenge on Suna. I am going to admit that I was wrong to do so."

_"You were never loved..."_

"M-mother...I..." He leaned forward and shifted so that he was on his knees, and hugged her in desperation.

"I love you, sochi..." He finally allowed himself to break down to sobs. He no longer cared to keep his composure...he was incapable of recalling his mental barrier for he had gone through far too much for his mind to comprehend, from being dead to going to this new world, the world of the dead, and finding his relatives...and hearing this, he told himself the truth: He was nothing in this world, he'd started from scratch, and though he no longer hand Temari or Kankurou he had his mother.

"Don't leave me again..." Gaara's voice was worn, tired, shaky, and quiet as he clung to the parent he never had in his first life.

"Well...you must be hungry, right?" He nodded and then pulled away, before grabbing a raw fish from the pocket.

"That's why I got these." As he was about to bite down on one, she pulled it away.

"You will not eat this fish raw!" She scolded. He gave a shaky laugh and a painfully relieved smile, and then laid against the tree, his eyes fluttering shut. But before he fell asleep he felt her lips on his forehead, giving him a soft kiss. He ignored the shiver and the minor look of shock on her face due to being unable to see it.

"Rest, my little raccoon...You've been through so much in so little time, I know...Rest..."

"T-Thank you...mother..." His eyes were then fully shut as his breath evened out, his body falling limp in the exhaustion he was encumbered with.

"Brother...How could you have helped destroy my son so much?" The woman asked openly. A man now stepped out from behind a separate tree, looking nearly identical to the woman with a little sadness on his face.

"Gomen ne, Karura. However...I know that he'll never forgive me..."

"You are lucky that I have not gotten angry with you as of right now." Karura murmured. "Assist me in taking Gaara-kun back to the compound, he's running a high fever."

"Hai." Yashamaru lifted the boy onto his back, Gaara's cheek pressed against his shoulders as the boy slept peacefully in the fever induced state of unconsciousness he was in.

"Gomen, Gaara...for making you suffer so. I finally understand that...no living being deserves to take such a brutal punishment...especially not a child."

--

As the two siblings neared the compound, the previous Kazekage, Kei, paced back and forth with a troubled expression on his face. As he looked up, he saw not only his wife and brother-in-law, but his son as well, sleeping soundly being carried on Yashamaru's back.

"So it was him..." Karura simply spared him an angry glare and directed her brother to the guest room, laying him down and then checking his temperature before scurrying to the "kitchen" where she got a towel that she promptly soaked with cold water, carrying it back to where the ill boy lay and laying it across his forehead. She saw that Yashamaru had removed the vest, the bag, and the sword all while laying them on the table next to his bed.

"I didn't expect him to die so early..." She murmured sadly. Yashamaru sighed and shook his head.

"I did...The Akatsuki was bound to go after him. They must have extracted Shukaku from him." Kei walked over to the sword, taking it in his hand and staring at it intently.

"...This...This isn't an ordinary sword!" He murmured, shocked. "When did Gaara get a zanpakuto?!" However, he was forced to drop it as he sand bit at his hands.

"**Only the Prince is allowed to hold me.**" A voice snarled, from within the sword.

"S-Shukaku?!"

"**No****. No longer.**" The reply was. "**Try to touch me again and you will face-**"

"Dammit Kazesuna! Shut the fuck up would you?...I have a head ache and your constant babbling isn't making it better!" Gaara's weak voice penetrated the room, as they looked over to the boy who was trying with all his might to sit up.

"**Gomen, Prince.**"

"What? Why "prince"?" He asked as he cradled his head in pain. "Ow..."

"Shh, lay back down and rest Gaara, you're running a fever."

"A fever?...Worthless tanuki."

"**Shut up!**"

"No, you shut up."

"**No, you shut up**."

"I told you first."

"**No, I did.**"

"...Shut up."

"**I don't think I will.**"

"Go to hell."

"**If I was to go to hell you'd be coming with me, dumb-ass.**"

"...Shut up." He then laid himself back down with a yelp of pain as his body groaned in protest. "I hate being dead."

"You'll get used to it eventually." Yashamaru spoke now, and Gaara's head snapped in the direction of the voice, wide eyes before they narrowed in anger, sheets going over his head and him turning away.

"Get away from me." Was the command. That was before a crash echoed in the front of the compound. Yashamaru and Kei shared a startled glance and ran out to the front to investigate. Karura followed. And when Gaara heard a scream of shock he got up and took Kazesuna no Tanuki with him. And at the front, he saw two Shinigami - though he didn't know it - confronting his parents. Yashamaru was in a pinned position by one of the Shinigami who had red hair tied up in a spiky pony-tail, and the other Shinigami had blond hair that went over his eye.

"Where is the boy?" The blond Shinigami asked.

"What boy?" Kei asked, shielding his son.

"Don't act stupid with us, we know that boy that Hitsugaya-taichou sent here from your world is in here! Come out, come out wherever you are!" The red-headed Shinigami snarled.

"Roar across the endless deserts...and reconcile in the endless destruction with your brethren...Kazesuna no Tanuki!" The tattooed Shinigami barely had time to move as a spear was swung at his wrist. Gaara glared venomously to the man walking forward calmly as the black handled and bladed version of Shukaku's spear sat in the palm of his hand.

"Stay. Away. From. My. Uncle." Was snarled out from the red-heads throat, as he then shunpo'ed to the blond's side, the shinigami too being almost incapable of dodging - just only making a narrow escape- as a condensed wind erupted from the tip of the largest blade on the spear-head, shooting a deep crater in the ground.

"Don't you even try touching my parents. Especially not mother." Was snarled again, though he ignored the dizziness and the slight pants coming from him. "If you have a problem, you pick a fight with _me_."

"What's your name, brat?"

"Gaara. Sabaku no Gaara."

"Of the Desert, eh? Fitting for one like you. Sixth Division fukutaichou, Abarai Renji."

"Stop your useless fighting, Abarai!" Was a shout barked out at him, and the two shinigami and the former Godaime Kazekage looked over to see a blond man wearing a white haori. A slight shine of sweat covered Gaara's face as he continued his labored panting, obviously unwell.

"N-Namikaze-taichou!" Was stuttered before Renji bowed. "G-gomennasai." However, the man completely ignored him as he walked over to the red-headed boy, and then saw Kei, Karura and Yashamaru.

"I see...hello, Yondaime Kazekage." The man hissed.

"The same could be said to you, Yondaime Hokage." Was shot back. Then the man looked at Gaara.

"And your the youngest son, aren't you?" He nodded slowly.

"Sabaku no Gaara." Gaara verified, his glare lightening significantly as he felt extremely light-headed.

"Namikaze Minato, 3rd Division Captain." Minato paused. "Say, do you know a boy named Naruto?"

"Yes." Was the reply. "He was a good friend of mine...he completely changed me...and you look just like him."

"I see...He was my son."

"WHAT?" Gaara's eyes were wide. "If Naruto knew that he would never let anyone live it down. Not even my being the Godaime could deter him from bragging."

"You became the Godaime Kazekage?" Was asked of him by Kei.

"Yes...And then I died because of the goddamn demon being hunted by the Akatsuki."

"**I HEARD THAT!**" Kazesuna snarled, offended. Gaara seemed to choose to ignore him.

"How is he?" Minato asked again.

"He has friends. He's strong...He has a goal, and he'll achieve it. And in the meanwhile he'll avenge all of the jinchuuriki who have fallen to the Akatsuki."

Minato smiled.

"Thank you Gaara."

Gaara shrugged before taking on a more serious face. "Now...Why did those two come here?"

"Hitsugaya-taichou, the one who sent you to here, Soul Society, spoke of your immediate achieving of the shikai form of your zanpakuto...Your spear."

"You mean Kazesuna?" He looked down to the weapon.

"Yes. And because of that, we wish for you to become a Shinigami and train under Hitsugaya-taichou and I, as to get you an immediate rank as the 9th Division Captain. We need a replacement for that rank for the former captain defected, and seeing of your tremendous potential and how we need that kind of potential now during times of war, we'll remove you from normal circumstances. What do you say?"

Gaara did an unusual thing for his character: He grinned. "Why not? I like being in charge. And besides, I need some new material to brag to Naruto about when he dies."

"Touché." Minato replied. "Then come along with us, and let us go to Seireitei."

"Um, pardon my interfering, but Sabaku-san does not look well." The shorter blond's point was emphasized by the red-headed ninja-shinigami, who stumbled violently.

"You're right, Kira." Minato murmured, now observing the boy more closely.

"I'm fine." Gaara murmured.

"He is NOT fine! He has a very high fever!" Karura hissed.

"We will take care of him for you, Karura. The 4th Division will treat his ailment in no time." Minato replied, a knowing look on his face before he ruffled Gaara's hair. "Common squirt, lets go."

"I AM NOT A SQUIRT!" Gaara hissed, frowned. "...Well...Okay, I'm shorter than Naruto." He frowned significantly at that. "Dammit."

"You'll then stay shorter than Naruto, sadly. No one ages in Soul Society for hundreds of years."

"Let us be going then, Namikaze-taichou." Kira said, as he and Renji turned and shunpo'ed away.

"Yes...Don't worry yourself so much, Karura. He'll visit, I'll make sure of it!" He smiled brightly before picking Gaara up over his shoulder - who protested greatly - and shunpo'ed out of sight.

--

**Review plz? D=**


	3. The 4th Division and the Hollow

"Unohara-taichou, Namikaze-taichou is here!" Isane, the vice-captain of the 4th Division called out. A black haired woman stepped out, a gentle smile on her face.

"Thank you, Isane, for telling me." She then walked out to the front of the division where Minato stood, a hand on Gaara's shoulder as he now stood, wobbling slightly.

"Is that the boy that Hitsugaya-taichou was speaking of?" There was a positive nod.

"This is Gaara. He actually comes from another village in my world. And I'm not surprised that he achieved shikai immediately - He achieved the rank of Kazekage, leader of his village, before he died."

"And how old are you Gaara?" Unohara asked sweetly.

"Fifteen." Her eyes widened slightly before she quickly hid her shock.

"His mother said he had a terrible fever."

"Well, take a seat and I'll see what I can do for you." He did as he was told, and moaned slightly as his body trembled from the groaning protest of his body. She settled a hand on his forehead, and immediately tensed from the insane amount of reiryoku dying for release from the boy's body. As she pushed a little of her own reiryoku into his body, all of the energy poured out at once and threw the two captains to their knees as Gaara let out a howl of pain.

And for a second, Unohara and Minato both saw a flash of a version of Gaara with blue hair, white skin, a white shihakusho, a white handle with black blade version - with blue markings rather than red on the blade - of Kazesuna, and gold on black eyes...like a hollow, and, Minato recognizing the symbol within the irises with much horror, Shukaku, grinning insanely at them.

"**I WILL BE FREE!**" Was the hideous cackle, but as soon as it was there it was gone. When they asserted their reiryoku upon the uncontrolled one of the red-head, it eventually calmed as he slumped back, panting excessively while wiping sweat from his brow, his head no longer spinning as it had been doing earlier.

"The problem was that somehow his reiryoku was clogged, and was incapable of escaping. The energy was already tremendously large, and being in a new body in a new atmosphere wore him down. It was putting excessive pressure on his bones, and I think that some of them may have cracked because of it. Let him rest for a while." As Unohara called Isane to direct the former-insomniac to a room, she gave a startled glance to Minato.

"Retsu..."

"That figure...was it a Hollow? Did Hitsugaya-taichou forget to tell us something?" She murmured.

And quickly said captain appeared at the entrance of the compound, a confused expression on his face.

"What was that reiatsu just now?" He asked cautiously.

"It came from Gaara, that boy that you sent to Soul Society just recently."

"And further to our attention...During the massive outburst we saw a flash of something that looked like a hollowfied version of the young child. Care to elaborate?" Hitsugaya's breath caught in his throat.

"I didn't think it would actually stick around..." Hitsugaya cleared his throat and spoke in a low voice. "Well, as I was arriving close to the disturbance, I saw that he was turning into a hollow."

"What did you do?"

"I stood back and watched. It was the same as Kurosaki as Urahara said - the body didn't change, only the mask began. And then he developed his shikai, and the mask was still there. But I took it off when sending him here."

"So Gaara is a vizard."

"**Not quite.**" They turned to see Gaara, upright, but with strange eyes - his right eye was identical to a hollow, and the other was a trait of Shukaku. "**The funny thing is, his hollow merged with me, his zanpakuto because during that rage of energy he tried to break away - but he was threatening the wellbeing of my host, and so I killed him...so I thought. I have adopted all of his power and abilities, and as such you have no need to be worrying about it. I would never hurt the boy who was my host in the past life.**"

"S-Shu-Shukaku!?" Minato stuttered, eyes wide. "B-But how can this be?!"

"**How the hell should I know? And by the way, once I became his "zanpakuto" I became Kazesuna. All I know is that you need not worry about any instability. He is the Prince of the Desert, both inner world and out.**" And then his eyes turned to the left one being their normal light blue, but the other remaining as Shukaku's eye, but the black backing of the eye turning to white, and Gaara shook his head.

"Goddammit Kazesuna, that hurts my head." He rubbed his forehead now gingerly, before looking at the three captains. "...Wasn't I just laying down?" He asked, and the two taller ones nodded, but were still staring.

"Gaara...Your...eyes..." He frowned.

"What do you mean "my eyes"?"

"One of them is blue, but the other is gold." His eyes widened.

"Like Shuka-I mean, Kazesuna's." He frantically looked around for a mirror, but then Isane was called in with one by Retsu, and he saw immediately what they were talking about.

"W-What the hell? Kazesuna, what did you do to my eyes?!" He only got a mental shrug.

A hell butterfly then arrived.

"Will all taichou and fukutaichou please report to the 1st Division. And the captain with charge of the potential captain is to bring him along as well."

--

**Sorry for short chappy, this was the best cut-off point I could find.**


	4. Test! Success! Onigiri?

_"Will all taichou and fukutaichou please report to the 1st Division. And the captain with charge of the potential captain is to bring him along as well."_

The was a message given from a hell butterfly, that Minato relayed to Gaara, who nodded and joined them, them shunpo'ing while Gaara charged his reiatsu to his feet to imitate the speed used by ninja traveling on missions, which rivaled the speed of shunpo. And then they arrived at the first division, and when the three plus the boy entered all the other captains were there.

"And the boy is with you?"

"Hai, sotaichou. His name is-"

"Sabaku no Gaara." Gaara said on his own, stepping forward in his clothing with the sword strapped at his side. There were murmurs and glances given to the boy, and they especially regarded his eye with confusion and doubt.

"But he is a mere child! Recently dead, how could he be a potential captain!?" One captain, a female, hissed.

"Soifon-taichou, I assure you that Gaara has much power. In his past life he too achieved the rank of village leader, Kazekage."

"If it does not satisfy you, I will request that Gaara spar with two captains...Hitsugaya Toshiro and Kuchiki Byakuya will suffice." The two captains stepped forward, and Gaara simply stared passively.

"Fine." Gaara muttered.

"Then let us go to the training grounds to observe." All captains shunpo'ed, Minato taking hold of Gaara since he had no idea what was being talked about, to the specific location. It was a barren, sandy area, Gaara and Kazesuna noted with glee, and he couldn't help himself but grin.

"Take your positions." The head captain declared, Hitsugaya and Gaara obeying as such. "Begin!" And Gaara didn't move as Hitsugaya charged forward, blade drawn.

"What the hell is that boy doing?! He'll be dead on the first hit!" One of the now large gathering of lower Shinigami asked, shocked, as they saw him not even draw his sword.

"You see, these training grounds put Hitsugaya at a grave disadvantage..." Minato said, finally remembering the powers of the Ichibi jinchuuriki. As the blade got within a foot of the red-head, sand rose up and took hold of the blade, tossing him away as all the captains stared at him with wide eyes as a large amount of sand began to encircle his body.

"You can't win if you don't activate your sword. Kazesuna, in my past life, was a demon that was sealed inside me at birth, giving me power over the sand. And if you observe the current land-scape..." Hitsugaya looked around, and noticed it was all sand. Gaara grinned further.

"This land-scape puts me at a disadvantage, as Namikaze said..." He frowned. "Very well." He rose his sword and ice began to form. "Soten ni zase, HYORINMARU!"

'**Shit! Ice!**' Kazesuna shouted as a blast of ice came flying at Gaara. Some sand rose, and once the ice came in contact, it froze instantly. And then Hitsugaya went and froze the entire battleground, making it near impossible for him to summon up the ice. Gaara instantly dodged another ice shot, appearing at a completely opposite direction. Shinigami were watching in awe, and then the captain charged at Gaara, who instantly blocked the shikai with his sealed zanpakuto, reiryoku flowing through the blade even though it wasn't in its shikai form.

"Amazing! He blocked Hitsugaya-taichou's shikai with a sealed zanpakuto!" One person called out, before the dueling pair constantly shunpo'ed back and forth, blows being made before Gaara took a single stance, taking his zanpakuto in hand and holding it parallel to the ground. He then placed a light grip on the blade, and called out his shikai's release command. "Roar across the endless deserts and reconcile in the endless destruction with your brethren, Kazesuna no Tanuki!" Instantly the spear formed in his hand, before he swung it at Hitsugaya.

"Fuuton: Renkuudan!" He shouted, as a large blast of wind erupting from the tip of the highest blade and hit the captain square on, sending him far back, digging deep into the ground.

"Guh... That attack...had so much energy charged into it!..." Hitsugaya murmured, shocked before he stood up. They shot several blasts of ice and wind at each other, drastically lowering the temperature around them. Gaara then noted how his left eye began to burn terribly, before he couldn't see from it at all.

"W-Wha-"

'**Shh. I need to see so I stole your left eye.**' Kazesuna said plainly. '**You need to stall that Hitsugaya kid while I dig out some sand from this dratted ice. Then when he's weakened I'll envelop him in a Desert Coffin.**'

'_Don't kill him._' Was Gaara's only words to this. Hitsugaya noticed how the whites of Gaara's left eye had turned black, and instantly became wary.

'_What did he do?_' He wondered to himself, before taking Hyorinmaru to the next level.

"BANKAI!" The reiatsu let out by the taichou increased significantly, as wings grew on his back, his feet were enveloped by dragon-like ice feet, his arm enveloped in ice, a tail behind him, and three petals above him. "Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" And now he began to charge at Gaara at full strength, and since Gaara was not expecting this drastic increase of power, and also wanting to play along so Kazesuna would not be suspected of activity, he got rather roughened up. That was before he stood, and muttered the full incantation of the Renkuudan that Kazesuna lulled to him.

"Goddess of the Sky, God of the Wind, hear the rumbling and come down from your holy heavens, release your ruthless furies upon the unsuspecting mortals below and take pleasure in the destruction of those with the arrogance to disturb your peaceful Utopian word with your brothers and sisters before returning once more to bestow benevolence of those who plead usage of your great power...Fuuton: Renkuudan!" All while the incantation was being said, a huge ball of wind had been collected before being condensed into a small ball, that was instantly blown at Hitsugaya. Even those who were completely opposite of the training fields in Seireitei could feel the massive spiritual pressure and see the massive blast left from the attack. Hitsugaya was then on his knees, completely incapable of fighting further from the damage to his body.

"I-I can't feel my spiritual pressure!" Hitsugaya gasped out, grasping his heart region and continuing his labored breathing. None of the other captains could, either.

"It's only temporary, your body is in shock from the large amount of _living_ energy, chakra, that was collected inside of that attack." Minato explained simply. "Its a theory that I had been testing with Urahara-san on the real world, proven true just now, that if a dead being comes into contact with a certain amount of living energy their body will not be able to properly sort it out at once, thus shutting down the flow of reiryoku in order to cast the chakra away." Isane assisted Hitsugaya in standing and took him to the side-lines, before Byakuya stepped foot onto the training grounds.

"You should give up now, child, you are tired from your last attack." Byakuya said sternly, face passive. Gaara then stood himself upward and frowned.

"I don't 'give up'. In fact, I forgot the meaning of those two words after being friends with Uzumaki." He replied simply. Byakuya held his sword, pointed downward in front of him.

"Since I have observed what your abilities are, I have fully decided to use my full power to end this quickly. Chire, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." His sword dropped and then disappeared. Twelve blade jutted upwards around him before dissolving into large tendrils of pink blades that moved freely around him. Gaara grinned.

"You and I are not so different, Kuchiki-san." Sand rose up from the hole that Shukaku made in the ice and encircled him as well, him having sealed Kazesuna and put it back in its sheath. The two stood on equal ground as sand and blade particles clashed in a vibrant display, awing the many shinigami bearing witness to the battle. Soon both were directing their weapons with their hands, sending a spray of dust from the sand being ground to oblivion by the blades. Finally, Gaara became exhausted and more hits were landed by Byakuya. He was rather bloody when the blades pulled black.

"Let it be over now." Raising his arms, he threw them back forward, and the countless little pink-shined blades flew forward. However, a sphere of sand formed around Gaara, and the blades were deflected. "What?!" But the sand then quickly slid down, to reveal the boy again, standing still and rather slumped. The blades went forward, attacking, but when they drew back after landing successful hits, it was revealed to be a sand clone. And only did he then realize the presence to his side, and saw Gaara swinging his blade at him. But it missed by a long shot as the red-head collapsed on the ground, Kazesuna skidding away before returning to its sealed state. Leaning down, Byakuya checked to see if the boy was alive - and he was; only unconscious.

"He is unconscious." Byakuya called out. "Dare I say it if he had not lost consciousness then I would admit defeat."

"Who votes that Gaara is to become the 9th Division Captain?" The majority of hands rose. "It is settled. After receiving sufficient rest, Sabaku no Gaara will begin captain-class training under Hitsugaya-taichou and Namikaze-taichou. Dismissed." The captains shunpo'ed away as the lower captains remained a little longer, attempting to process what they just saw. Gaara had already taken by Isane as she followed her taichou to the 4th Division to heal the boy.

"That kid managed to hold his ground against two captains!..."

"Thats weird...He never went to the Shinigami academy. I don't even recognize him from Rukongai!"

"He only recently died."

"No way! How could he acquire so much power after such little time?!"

"Maybe he acquired it in the Material World? Like the Substitute Shinigami?"

"No." A blond, busty, baby-blue eyed woman stepped forward as she examined the damage left by the new guy and her taichou. "He attacked recklessly against Hitsugaya-taichou."

"Matsumoto is correct." Now Renji stepped forward. "Also, he showed a partial confusion during the middle of the battle, noticing a new development in his powers possibly."

"But some of his powers were familiar to him...rather, the control over sand he had. And he already knew his zanpakuto's familiar, so somehow it must have been something he was familiar with from his past life." A new man stepped up, with a 69 tattoo on his face, near-black brown hair, a three lined scar running over his right eye and a sleeveless shihakusho. "Jeez, I can't believe that guy is gonna be my captain. We gotta fix him up though...like get him some tattooed eyebrows or something."

Matsumoto smiled. "Well, we'll see, Shuuhei."

--

Gaara eventually woke up, exhausted, pale, and in pain. He groaned slightly as he struggled to sit up, his body trembling like a leaf.

"Gaara, your awake, finally..." He then saw Minato at his side.

"How long?..." He asked in a raspy tone.

"It was two weeks. You used up a ton of reiryoku in that fight...but because of that you earned yourself this." Clothing was thrown at him, and as he looked at it it was a black shihakusho, like the one Minato wore, and a haori, like Minato wore as well, with the insignia of "Nine" imprinted on it. "Congratulations, Kubantai taichou!"

"R-R-Really? I'm a captain already?" Minato nodded.

"But before you actually take on the captains duties, you are going to go through coaching from me and Hitsugaya-taichou." Minato began to leave, but before he did he paused. "Oh, and I had your haori fashioned like your vest and your trench coat combined - your mother undid the bag and it revealed a nicely crafted trench coat - that smelled of bad fish. Sleeveless trench coat!"

Gaara's stomach then growled loudly and he winced. "I'm so hungry..."

"Oh...You haven't eaten for two weeks, thats why..." He groaned as he curled into himself tightly, before being presented ten onigiri wrapped up. "Here, eat and you'll feel better." Gaara immediately began to devour the food given, and afterwards the hungry feeling went away for the most part.

"Arigato...So, what is this training you were speaking of?"

"You need to be taught kidou, and trained to learn bankai, the final form of your zanpakuto, and you need to be taught about Soul Society, Rukongai, Seireitei, and about the Gotei 13." Gaara groaned as his head felt light-headed again, thinking of all the things he was going to need to learn. "Relax kid, you have eternity to learn this stuff."

"Oh yeah...I forgot I was dead."

"Oh, and by the way, your new vice-captain said he wanted to meet you." And speak of the devil, Shuuhei entered immediately.

"Sabaku-taichou! You're awake." He nodded firmly, his mouth tight in a thin line. "I am your fukutaichou, Shuuhei Hisagi. I just want to get a few things over with..." Gaara rose an eye-ridge.

"Pray tell, what exactly do you have in mind?"

"If you betray us, I'll kill you." This was thoroughly unexpected.

"Excuse me?"

Now Minato's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, yeah, his previous captain was one of three traitors. Needless to say he wasn't exactly enthralled by the fact and is a little less trusting." Gaara ah'ed in understanding.

"I see. But do not worry...Shuuhei Hisagi, right?" Hisagi nodded. "I don't plan on betraying, any time soon. I've been betrayed, I don't like how it feels, so I wouldn't honestly try to."

This seemed to satisfy the vice-captain.

"Thank you." And he left.

...

Gaara then turned to the elder captain.

"You wouldn't happen to have any more of that onigiri, would you?"

--

**Revised; because I did the tattoo idea when I was half tired and I grew displeased with it. :\**


	5. Timeskips and Mission Details

Two years past as Gaara went through captain coaching and bankai as well as kidou training. After those two years, the next meeting that Yamamoto held, he asked a question to the 10th, 3rd and 9th Division Captains at the absolute end. Shuuhei was also there, since while Gaara was training he still was a substitute.

"Is Sabaku-taichou making any progress?" Minato grinned.

"He's finally perfected his bankai, having achieved it a few months ago. He's also learned a sufficient amount of kidou. And with training his bankai, Hitsugaya-taichou also perfected his bankai as well."

"Oh? Lets see them then, Hitsugaya-taichou, Sabaku-taichou."

"You first Hitsugaya-san." Gaara said. Hitsugaya nodded.

"BANKAI! Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" And then his bankai fully formed, and instead of the petals behind him there was a larger dragon that curled around him possessively - the true form of Hyorinmaru.

"Impressive, Hitsugaya." Yamamoto said. "And now, Sabaku-taichou." Hitsugaya deactivated his bankai and let the other step forward. Gaara first activated his shikai form. And then he spoke as he sliced two fingers on the longest blade.

"Ban...KAI!" A massive spiritual energy filled the room and sand erupted from the top of his spear, swirling around him in a massive frenzy, before revealing the taichou with a long Shukaku's tail, and black ears of the Shukaku. On his face was the hollow-like mask of his zanpakuto, Kazesuna. And his arms were covered purely in sand, the sides of his arms having large spikes that had a visible string of reiryoku attach to a giant tanuki behind him that was the exact replica of the Shukaku in his past life. "Smash your enemies in the endless grains of sand, Kazesuna Ichibi, Bijuu no Shukaku."

"A hollow's mask?!"

"The boy is a vizard!?"

"No, he isn't. That mask represent his past life's status as a demon host...a fate that was worse than death in his world. It is the manifestation of the demon Shukaku, now his zanpakuto Kazesuna." Unohara began to explain. "Although he had become a vizard unintentionally in his past life directly after his death, his zanpakuto immediately destroyed it and absorbed all of its powers...and Kazesuna also spoke of his possessiveness of Gaara-san, and so it is ensured that he will never have to face inner struggles of that kind." Gaara released his bankai, standing normally.

"Though Kazesuna was actually smaller than normal...must be the amount of room in here." He mused.

"You have made impressive leaps Sabaku-taichou. I now grant you full captaincy. Congratulations...you are truly a prodigy of your own kind boy." Yamamoto spoke. "Dismissed!" Shuuhei nodded at his captain.

"Lets go and get you settled in, Sabaku-taichou."

"H-Hai..." Gaara muttered, before following his vice-captain via shunpo, and soon they were at the 9th Division. Shuuhei then rose his voice to a loud shout.

"EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" He called out. "YOU NOW HAVE A NEW CAPTAIN! TREAT HIM IN RESPECT OR HE'LL KICK YOUR ASS, GOT IT?!" They looked out and saw the red-headed boy.

"That kid?! The one who managed to stand up two Captain's bankai with only his shikai?!"

"He's just a midget!"

"He's the youngest captain in Soul Society...Way too young, to be precise!" Gaara was slowly getting pissed off, and sand slowly started to curl around him.

"I'll take the kid out with one hit....just watch!" One Shinigami smirked before attacking the red-head. But his attack didn't even go through as the reiryoku he emitted grew ten-fold, and the shinigami found himself forced against the floor.

"I must warn you..." Gaara snarled, eyes narrowed. "I don't take kindly to those who underestimate me. Let us continue on, Hisagi-fukutaichou."

"H-hai..." Shuuhei murmured, recomposing himself form the shock of the pure density of the reiatsu of his new taichou. Noticing his look, Gaara gave a short laugh.

"Your surprised with how quickly I managed to develop my powers? I've had similar abilities in my past life, I came from a different world than you did, most likely. But if your shocked with _this_ power, then God forbid the day that Uzumaki Naruto, the son of Namikaze-san, dies and becomes a Shinigami. He'll have twice my power by two years, I am guessing." Gaara enjoyed the dumbfounded look on the males face. "Come now, lets go." And then Shuuhei showed him to the office, and then to his new quarters. After discovering where things were, he immediately went to the office where he sat down and began to do the paperwork. And after five hours he finished, sighing happily. "I can't believe I missed filling out paperwork..." He said out loud, laying back in his chair. "I think I'll get used to this easily."

--

Now another year passed. The 9th Division settled down into a normal routine, and all accepted their new captain. Gaara found it quite easy to be a captain, except during times of encounters with Aizen and his arrancar. And during one taichou meeting, Yamamoto began to speak once more.

"And now, it seems, that Aizen has taken an interest in the Shinobi world...The world which two of our captains came from...and this is why I will be sending them back. Namikaze Minato, Sabaku no Gaara...You will take Hitsugaya-taichou and Kurosaki-taichou with you, and your mission is to inform every village head of this impending threat, as well as defend. You are to kill any Arrancar, and call for back up from a fellow captain if it is an espada you cannot handle. If any of the traitors show themselves, you must _not_ engage them until you are absolutely sure you will be able to survive. Shinigami can be seen in that world, due to the high amount of energy condensed in that world. Inform Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji that they too are on this mission. We cannot afford failure on this task. As soon as you have informed the villages, you are to report. If the situation seems more dire than currently assessed, we will send the sufficient amount of back-up. Namikaze-san, please elaborate upon the abilities you know of in this world."

"The village we will initially be meeting with is Konoha, my village. Upon entering this world, we split up into two groups. One must have Gaara, and the other must have me. Both of us are well known, since I was a Hokage and he a Kazekage, leaders of the village, and they will not be prone to attack. _Do not attack them_. And they will immediately come to find us for there is a barrier surrounding the entire village." Ichigo, who had become the 5th Division Captain after he died from saving a kid from dying in a river, and Hitsugaya both nodded in affirmation.

"Very well. You leave immediately!" And all the captains shunpo'ed away to find Renji and Rukia. And after the two had been informed of the mission, they all disappeared in the Sekaimon to the world that Gaara had left almost three years before...

--

**Sorry...its like...a filler chap. D=**


	6. Arrive In the Shinobi World!

They had appeared in the forest on the outskirts of the city, and Gaara felt a tension release him as he took in a deep breath with a relieved smile on his face.

"You feel it too, don't you Gaara? Our bodies, even after death, are always accustomed to the chakra-condensed atmosphere." Minato spoke, and Gaara simply nodded in reply, and then turned to their troops.

"Kurosaki-san, Hitsugaya-san, you are with me. Kuchiki-san, Abarai-san, with Namikaze-san."

"For the last time kid, the names Ichigo." Ichigo growled, annoyed at the formality.

"Well excuse me for adding the honorifics onto everyones name as to not accidentally offend someone...that in particular being Hitsugaya-san..." Gaara cast a wary glance to the taichou, remembering the last time he forgot to call him by his last name with honorific. Ice was not supposed to go _down there,_ he recalled with a shudder.

"But why are you taking both taichou and leaving Namikaze-taichou with a lieutenant and and unseated officer?" Rukia asked in confusion.

"You should not underestimate Namikaze-san. In this world, he is the absolute strongest of all of us. He himself was able to defeat and seal away the King of Bijuu...and he created the humans equivalent of Shunpo, the extremely difficult Hiraishin."

"Really?...Amazing!" Renji murmured, giving a glance to the blond captain.

"Lets go." Gaara said, and soon the three captains were off in the opposite direction of Minato, Renji and Rukia, before breaking into the barrier with no trouble at all. This alerted the shinobi nearby, and they all rushed to the location. The first ones there were a blond haired blue eyed whiskered boy, a male with brown-almost black hair tied in a spiky ponytail, wearing a green vest, and a female wearing a black dress with a fan at her back, her hitai-ate being different from both of the other boys because of the symbol as it was wrapped around her neck. As they saw the three males standing tall on the air itself above them, wearing black shihakushos and white haoris, something struck them as familiar about the middle one.

"You...the one in the middle." The female stuttered, as the other two and the now gathered ninja forces aside from them stood in shock. "...Are you...who I think you are?"

"...T-Te...Temari?" His voice was heavy in shock and grief.

"Its...the Godaime Kazekage!" Was the startled revelation of the jounin forces behind the three people staring.

"Ey, Gaara, you know these people?" The orange-haired shinigami asked in a rather bored tone. However this earned him a swift smack in the head as Gaara gave him a pissed glare.

"Thats _Sabaku-taichou_ to you, Kurosaki-san." Ichigo frowned again, before turning fully to him with an agitated look on his face.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that! ...Squirt." Now Gaara's eye started twitching in rage as he simply said aloud, "Kazesuna, do what you deem fit with him, I'm pissed." The whites of his left eye turned to black, and the shinobi noted the uncanny similarity that that eye bore to Shukaku's. And now as Ichigo squeaked rather loudly before being enveloped in sand, Gaara jumped down to be on even level with them.

"Gaara...Is that _really_ you?" He had was rather solemn expression on his face.

"How can you recognize me when I've gone through such a change than what you remember?" He asked softly.

"You're my brother, dumbass." She murmured softly, brushing his hair back in kissing his forehead. He chuckled softly.

"I'm sorry I died so early Temari."

"I forgave you three years ago, boke." Her voice was rather sweet as she stepped back. "Stand down - If these men come with no bad intent, and they come with my brother on friendly terms, then there is no reason to seek to harm them. You may return to your posts." They nodded warily and left, and then Gaara found himself surprised when Naruto punched him. He stumbled back a little bit and gingerly rubbed his jaw.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU SAID YOU'D BE HERE WHEN I BECAME HOKAGE! YOU SAID YOU'D FUCKING BE _ALIVE_! AND YOU DIED!!" Gaara's frown deepened as he stepped forward to Naruto.

"I can't say sorry because I know I broke that promise...but it was outside of my will, even though even that doesn't make up for it. But regardless, I can only say I'm sorry and hope that it will mean something to an old friend who taught me what really was worth something in life."

"Man...Troublesome as ever, you had Temari crying at your funeral and you have her crying now 'cause she gets to see you again. But mind if I ask you a question?" Was asked from the vest-wearing male. Gaara shrugged. "What's up with your outfit?"

"This." Hitsugaya then stepped in. "Is the standard outfit of a Shinigami in the Gotei 13. The black shihakusho, at least."

"Shini...gami?...So that means you're a Death God too, Gaara." Shikamaru murmured.

"Hey...I know you! Toshirou, the one who sent Gaara to this Soul Society place, or wherever that is! Didn't you say you were a "Captain"?" He nodded.

"Captain? How high a rank is that?"

"There are 13 squads in the Gotei 13. And as such there are 13 Captains, 13 Vice-captains, 221 Seated officers and at least a thousand unseated officers. The captain is the strongest of their Division. I am the Tenth Division Captain."

"I'm the Third Division Captain." Ichigo stepped forward. "Kurosaki Ichigo."

"And I, under special circumstances, because the 9th Division Captain. Are you satisfied with your answer, Shikamaru?" And then a heavy energy was pressing down on them. Naruto, Temari, and Shikamaru all had their eyes wide at the extremity.

"Shit!" Ichigo shouted.

"That reiatsu is Namikaze-taichou's!" Hitsugaya now spoke with wide eyes.

"And...FUCK! Ichigo, Hitsugaya, get over there NOW! His only back up is Renji and Rukia...GO!" Gaara said, and as soon as they left, a voice echoed behind him.

"And now that they're gone, who's gonna save you? I heard a lot about you, actually...A true child prodigy, making captain class in two years time and being able to stand against the bankai of two captains and live only just the day after he died." A silver haired man with a grin and slitted eyes spoke, the smile never leaving his face. He wore a white high-collar coat over his shinigami shihakusho.

"Roar across the endless deserts and reconcile in the endless destruction with your brethren...Kazesuna no Tanuki!" He called out sternly, and the spear appeared once again.

"**Oh? You've released the first Shikai. Whats the occasion?**" A deep, rumbling voice echoed into the air from within the spear.

"Ichimaru Gin...Leave this place, you vile piece of scum!" Gaara barked, eyes narrowed in hatred.

"Oh, but whats with those interesting eyes? One is gold, the other is blue..."

"A permanent marking of my past life, and of my zanpakuto." Was the cold voice. Temari flinched at the aura of pure hatred emanating from her brother.

"Shoot to kill, Shinso." He blocked with Kazesuna before rising it and pointing the largest blade at him.

"Kazesuna, cover me." His eye began to change from whites to black and a smile seemed to paint itself on the voice.

"**No problem, Prince.**" Sand began to fly in all wild directions as Gaara began an incantation. "Goddess of the Sky, God of the Wind, hear the rumbling and come down from your holy heavens, release your ruthless furies upon the unsuspecting mortals below and take pleasure in the destruction of those with the arrogance to disturb your peaceful Utopian word with your brothers and sisters before returning once more to bestow benevolence of those who plead usage of your great power..." He took a deep breath as he aimed at Gin, who was distracted. "...Fuuton: Renkuudan." The fatal ball of air that had condensed itself above the tip of the sharpest, longest blade now shot out, and Gin barely had enough time to create a kidou to allow himself to live. He was rather injured after the blast cleared, and then several shinobi arrived.

"Sabaku No Gaara...You are strong for your age. Apparently there was no lie when they made you a captain after two years..." Gin continued his nasty grin. However, he then shot the blade out once more, and it was headed right for Temari. Eyes wide, Gaara managed to make it there before the blade made impact. A loud grunt was the only thing to show that Gaara was in pain as he looked at the hilt of his spear that stopped the blade of Shinso which happened to go _right through him_.

"You...I'll....kill...your sorry ass...ICHIMARU GIN!!" Gaara snarled in a pure rage before sand began to crawl up the blade at a frighteningly fast pace, Gin quickly withdrew the blade and backed away, but his wrist and lower arm were absolutely crushed in the meantime. Gaara crumpled to the ground in a painful heap, before he turned and forced himself to his feet, panting as he held his blade in front of him. He sliced two fingers on the blade, and then snarled as a shout.

"BANKAI!" The energy that was now pouring from him was extremely dense, forcing the majority of ninja, except for Naruto, to succumb to the pressure. When the sand that had been swirling around him cleared, he had his arms covered in sand with the spikes, the tanuki mask with the black ears and tail, and behind Gin was a giant tanuki with soulless eyes.

"SMASH YOUR ENEMIES IN THE ENDLESS GRAINS OF SAND, KAZESUNA ICHIBI, BIJUU NO SHUKAKU!" Gaara screeched, pure rage boiling under his skin. "I'LL FUCKING TEACH YOU NEVER TO TOUCH MY SISTER!" The tanuki behind Gin howled as it clamped its hands down on Gin, squeezing the living daylights out of him as his spiritual energy poured out in lethal - to the subject letting it out - doses. However, he froze before his bankai shattered, his sword cracking as he began to plummet in a downward spiral when the blade drew out of his body a second time. Naruto caught the boy as Gin made a narrow escape via Garganta.

"GAARA! Wake up!! WAKE UP!!" A weak cough and Gaara managed to meet his friends eyes before passing out from agony. His white haori was stained in a ton of blood, and Naruto was worried. As Sakura, the pink haired medic arrived he thrust into her arms the trembling body.

"H-heal him!" Shocked as the pink-haired woman recognized the red-head, but acting immediately as she saw the blood. His breathing was shallow even when the healing was done, and his skin was pale and clammy. Just then did Minato, Renji, Rukia, Ichigo and Hitsugaya show up. Ichigo was the first to speak in shock.

"G-Gaara!" Sakura - now joined by Ino, Kankurou, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten, looked up to the new-comers.

"Who are you people?!"

"Its fine!" Temari hissed. "They don't want to hurt us!"

"No...We don't." Gaara now attempted to stand on his own, panting vigorously as he tried to steady himself. "Goddammit...I wasted so much reiryoku..."

"Sabaku-taichou, who did you battle with to let your reiatsu go so beserk?" Rukia asked.

"Ichimaru." Gaara replied sullenly, opting to ignore the look of confusion and shock on the ninjas' faces.

"Gin?! You fought against_ Gin_?! BAKA!" Minato scolded. "We were _strictly_ ordered _not_ to fight any of the traitors."

"Unless we were absolutely sure we could be healed." Gaara replied dryly. "Those were the conditions, I believe. But hey, don't be scolding me. I'm just a kid! And you, _you_ took Ulquiorra _and_ that other guy...what was his name?...Oh yeah, Grimmjow! And you can't forget about Tousen either...So! I think my point is proven."

"HOLD ON A MINUTE!" Kiba snarled, Akamaru at his side and with his ears flattened. "What the HELL is going on? And are you who I think you are?!"

Gaara turned to face the group. "Yes, I am probably who you think I am. If you're thinking of the fifteen year old demon host that died three years ago. No, I'm still dead, technically your not supposed to see me but this is the ninjas world, having access to any powers at all proves high spiritual awareness. And due to every living being having an unusually large amount of living energy, chakra, they also have a lot of dead energy, reiryoku, which changes the atmosphere."

"Gaara...You..." Finally did Gaara notice Kankurou, the male no longer wearing his normal garments and in actuality being clad in the Kazekages robes.

"K-...Kankurou!" The Rokudaime Kazekage embraced his sibling tightly, feeling no shame at all.

"Dammit Gaara, your a fucking idiot...Dying on us so horribly..." Kankurou murmured. Gaara shrugged loosely in the grasp.

"Fate sucks, sorry." But that was before he pulled away and put a serious look on his face. "Well, the only reason why I've shown my sorry ass back here is because orders from the head-captain of The Gotei 13, the organization of Shinigami in the world of the Dead, Soul Society."

"Our current enemy, a powerful traitor named Aizen Sousuke has shown interest in this world. And Yamamoto-sotaichou wanted powerful captains guarding this place. And since Gaara and I are both former Kages, he sent us here."

"The man that Gaara barely managed to make a draw with was Ichimaru Gin, one of Aizen's right hands." Hitsugaya said.

"But how can you be a powerful guy? You're just a freaking midget!" Kiba exclaimed, before the temperature dropped several degrees.

"I. Am. Not. A. Squirt." Hitsugaya's face displayed agitation, and the dog-ninja gulped, recoiling.

"Aside from that, one, dog-breath, never call Hitsugaya-san a squirt or anything related, he'll freeze you faster than you can say your name. Hell, I accidentally called him an informal name, and I was trying to get all the ice off after five weeks." Gaara said simply. "Two, Minato-san has to go meet with...Tsunade is still the Hokage, right?"

"Yes." And then Neji used his Byakugan, and his eyes widened. "You have no chakra networks!"

"Chakra networks? Whatever the hell that is, we probably don't have them because WE'RE DEAD." Renji cut in. "The dead have no chakra, all living energy is turned into reiryoku."

"While I'm away, please keep an eye on Renji and Ichigo, I don't want something destroyed by the time we get back." With that, Gaara and Minato shunpo'ed away. And the two groups stared at each other awkwardly.

"...Um...Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" The boy said. The four shinigami's eyes widened.

"Uzumaki Naruto?...Dear lord, don't ever die. If we get another annoying powerhouse in Soul Society the apocalypse will come upon us." Renji said, eye twitching before Ichigo smacked him with his fist.

"Dammit Renji, shut your fucking mouth!" And as the two began to quarrel the temperature dropped again.

"Shut. The hell. Up." The Captain and Vice-captain both froze, and regarded the snowy-haired captain with something akin to fear.

"So...why were you being sarcastic about if I die?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Sabaku-taichou spoke highly of your power and potential. He made captain with a ton of power in two years, an incredible feat in itself. He said you would most likely have twice his power in the same time."

"Really?!" They all nodded. "Thats awesome!"

"But aside from that...Do you know your parents?"

"Why would I know that?"

"You were staring at your dad just a little while ago."

"WHAT?! Why didn't you tell me he was my dad?!" Naruto asked. And then something settled in as Shikamaru blurted a crucial piece of information.

"Wait a second...that blond guy...said he was also a former Kage...and his name was Minato..."

"OH MY GOD! He was the Fourth Hokage!" Now Kiba was stunned as they all stared at Naruto.

"You're the son of the Fourth Hokage." Neji bluntly said, his face completely stoic with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"...HEY!! YOU'RE RIGHT!! I'M THE SON OF THE FOURTH HOKAGE!! THATS AWESOME!"

--

**Yay, not so depressing! Lol. :D**


	7. Ninja Gigai! Traveling to Suna!

**WOW, I can't believe people actually like this. –wide eyes–**

**--**

The next day, all the villagers gathered restlessly in the town square to hear the announcement. Tsunade stepped on the stage set up, and following her were two easily recognized figures.

"THE YONDAIME!!"

"AND THE GODAIME KAZEKAGE!?"

"SILENCE!" Tsunade commanded, and all miraculously fell silent. "This news must be heard. Now, you all know that currently we are all living, correct?" They gave her a dumbfounded expression. "I take that as a yes. These two, however, are still dead, as dead as the day they died and were proclaimed dead."

"Are you purposely trying to make yourself sound stupid, Tsunade-baachan?" Minato asked lamely, and Gaara's eye twitched as he slowly moved away from the Tsunade and her growing temper.

"This is to lighten their shock, dumbass." Tsunade replied angrily, and Minato also began to back away slightly. But she reigned in her temper for another time.

"These former Kages were sent to a different world, the world of the dead which they have said is called Soul Society." A wave of murmurs and then Gaara stepped forward, projecting his voice in a commanding tone.

"We were recruited into the...military of the dead, so to speak, called the Gotei 13, composed of many Shinigami." Another wave of murmurs.

Minato added in his own fragment. "I am going to dispel any thoughts of Shinigami in your head right now - all stories you heard of them are _not real_. The actual Shinigami, what we are, are in fact simply dead souls with the power to guide dead souls, commonly called Pluses, to Soul Society. Also, it is our job to purify those souls who have turned into Hollow, those who were once human but were turned into monsters lacking personality, sympathy, empathy, or any other emotion for that matter, that consume Pluses for power."

"And there is a reason why we are here." Now Hitsugaya stepped forward onto the stage. Squeals of "SO CUTE!!" were echoed and he showed minor annoyance. "The leader of our organization, The head-captain, has sent us down here because an enemy has taken an interest in this world. Which is very, _very bad_."

"But don't sweat it! Its our job to protect the living!" Ichigo chuckled merrily, his high spirits raising that of the crowd. Several girls in the crowd squealed in delight at his looks.

"And to make sure you know them..."

"Tenth Squad Captain, Hitsugaya Toshirou." The snowy haired captain said.

"Ninth Squad Captain, you know me I think." Gaara said simply.

"Fifth Squad Captain, Kurosaki Ichigo." The carrot-top said.

"Third Squad Captain, my name is no mystery." Minato said.

"Sixth Squad Vice Captain, Abarai Renji." Now the red-headed Shinigami stepped on, and just as many squeals of adoration echoed. And finally Rukia stepped on stage.

"Thirteenth Squad, 5th Officer, Kuchiki Rukia." Wolf whistles made both Renji and Ichigo go into 'protective brother' mode. Rukia chuckled awkwardly.

"And until further notice, this is finished!" And then Tsunade turned away and the crowd scattered. The Shinigami then shunpo'ed away before they could be tackled. Now they sat on the roof, and then Gaara stopped them before they could split for the night. Naruto, Sakura, Temari and Kankurou all joined them, Kankurou now dressed in their normal gear...well, Kankurou having changed his, and having a three-quarter sleeve shirt with mesh and then black gloves with his puppets on his back.

"O-kay, I'm going to tell you guys now that I asked Urahara to work with Tsunade in order to make us special ninja gigai." Their jaws dropped.

"Ninja gigai?!" Gaara nodded, clearly showing that Minato was not shitting them.

"Well, duh. Since they are "ninja gigai", our reiatsu, when inside the gigai, is half transformed into chakra. Oh, and you won't have to be worried about being stared at for looking a little "strange" - In the world of ninja the strangest things you can see are either demons of darkness, or one of the jinchuuriki using their demons powers or forms." Minato said simply. "And we'll have to choose some outfits for you in this world - As ninja we tend to wear clothes more suited for battle."

"Ah..."

"And also, some ninja tend to go overboard on the mesh." A side glance from Naruto to the Sand Siblings, including Gaara. They shrugged.

--

And then the next day Naruto carted the artificial body of Gaara over his back to his apartment where Gaara, Hitsugaya, Ichigo, Rukia, Renji and his father were waiting. Behind him Sakura carried Hitsugaya's gigai, Kakashi with Minato's, Shikamaru with Ichigo's, Temari with Rukias and Kankurou with Renji's. How six ninja managed to remain undetected while carting six lifeless bodies (well, gigai, but they were technically human bodies) in broad day light he had yet to find out. Though the feeling of carrying the heavy, unmoving body of the red-head brought the horrible memory of when he carted the dead body of the Kazekage to Suna, and was forced to face the devastated faces of the villagers - all the ninja vouched not to cover the peaceful, unmoving face of the Kazekage yet. None of the people blamed him, luckily - in fact, they consoled him even though he hid his pain...being more kind to him then anyone in Konoha that was of their same status had been to him. But he had realized, with much pain, that they knew what he was, and they already had their own experience with a jinchuuriki. As they entered, the six shinigami looked up and Gaara looked a little ill when seeing his limp body in Naruto's shaking hands.

"Why did you make Naruto carry my gigai?" Gaara asked.

"I wanted to." Naruto replied shakily, and only then did they notice how unsettled he was and then they remembered that he was the one that brought his dead-weight, empty body back to his city.

"Naruto...we forgot...we forgot that you already had to carry Gaara's body once..."

"You made him carry my body?!" Gaara cried, outraged.

"None of us wanted to...To put you in a fucking black bag, okay?!" Kankurou snarled back, now trembling himself. At this point Rukia decided to intervene with her own question.

"Sabaku-taichou, have you ever used a gigai before?" And now a confused look crossed his face as he stared at the physical replica of himself that sat in the chair Naruto set it in.

"...Not exactly...I was in Soul Society earning my rank as a captain and then filling out the five tons of paperwork that came with it because of the war." Gaara chuckled slightly, feeling a little embarrassed. "So...Um, how do I...?"

"Grab it, and think like you're putting a coat on." Rukia replied, and then entered her gigai. She wore a kimono-like top with sleeves that went to her elbows, and tight shorts that covered what the shirt, only reaching two inches into the thigh, did not. She also wore standard ninja sandals, and had her hair tied back.

"You can still use kidou, but we'll also be teaching you supplementary jutsu." Minato commented, entering his own, wearing his standard outfit prior to his death.

"AHH!! I'M STUCK!" Gaara was only part way into his gigai with an annoyed expression as he struggled to move at all, his gigai just flopping around with his movement. His siblings stifled laughter at his dilemma and he glared at them. "Try going into a body when _you're_ dead, huh?! Its not that easy!" His tone made it even harder not to laugh and he settled on pouting childishly as he continued his pathetic wriggling. Finally Ichigo kicked the poor boy in; and it was clad in the clothing he had worn when he died. His eyes were both normal color; courtesy of Urahara, most likely.

Now Ichigo entered his gigai. He wore long black pants and ninja sandals, with a tank shirt and wraps on his arms with fingerless gloves. Renji followed suit, into the gigai with a long-sleeved tight-shirt that had a high-collar, with knee-long shorts and ninja sandals. Hitsugaya entered his last, and it had a white sleeveless shirt with the same collar as Renji's, as well as a black open vest. He had capri-styled pants on with thigh-high ninja sandals.

"And here are copies of your swords. You can channel similar attacks as your shikai through them, like Renji's can detach, Hitsugaya's and Rukia's can still control ice, and Ichigo's can still shoot its concentrated blasts of energy - but it is chakra, and should you run low on it Ichigo, it will instantly convert to your reiryoku stores. However, it requires more energy, and you cannot use your shikai and bankai."

"Alright. So...where do we go to learn these jutsu?..." Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru stepped forward.

"You'll be learning from us." And as they all left, Gaara turned to Temari and Kankurou.

"How has Suna been since I died?" His voice was soft.

"We've been living. Its been hard, but we're coping well. A lot of people grew fond of you...And there were so many devastated faces on the villagers' faces."

"...I see..." Kakashi then took out a parcel.

"Tsunade has requested that you check in at Suna for any sign of activity that you are here for." Gaara's eyes widened before smiling softly and nodding eagerly.

"Tell Tsunade-san I owe her one." And with that he turned to his siblings.

"Shall we go home?"

"Well, we were only here to supervise the Chuunin and Jounin exams, but they finished just before you got here, so...Lets go home, Gaara." They smiled, and with that they took their leave to enter the vast, wild, untamed desert that Gaara held dear to him.

--

As soon as the Captain, the Kage and the General entered the boundary of the cities, ninja approached them.

"Temari-dono, Kankurou-dono, you return with no protectio-" Baki froze as he saw Gaara standing there, supposed to be dead.

"Hi Baki-sensei." Gaara bowed his head. "Its been a while."

"GODAIME-SAMA?!" One ninja blurted, his eyes wide saucers holding an entrée of shock and confusion. "Y-you're supposed to be...dead!"

"There is a long story needed to be told, apparently. Remember the short, white haired shinigami?" Two of the seven shinobi, Baki and the ninja that spoke, nodded. "He sent me to Soul Society, I was found by _more_ shinigami, and I became one of them. Right now I'm in a physical form, a Shinigami tool called a gigai, a copy of a human body."

"S...sou ka." With that, Baki bowed. "Welcome home, Godaime Kazekage."

"I'm glad to be home, sensei." Replied the red-head gratefully. They now began to approach the village, before a beeping sound echoed from Gaara's pocket. With a speed capable of rivaling light, Gaara took the device out of his pocket, that was blinking and showing a map. "SHIT! A menos grande? No, its an adjuchas. What the hell is going on?!" He took out what appeared to be a Pez container, took one candy out, ate it, and his soul jumped out. Now standing was the mod soul, bowing his head to Gaara. "You are going to walk with these guys until I get back. Do not attempt to engage in possible battles, understood?"

"Right-io, boss-man!" The mod-soul chirped, the voice sounding strange. He sighed.

"Note to self - Do _not_let Rukia chose my soul candy." He then shunpo'ed away, and they were left to stare strangely at the Gaara standing. He frowned.

"What?"

"What are you?" Kankurou asked.

"Currently boss-man had to go fight something, judging from this reiatsu its a menos, and so he put me in. A modified soul." He got strange looks. "Modified souls are substitutions created in order to allow easy leave on a shinigami's part. If he didn't have that you'd be carrying a lifeless body until he returned." They nodded in acceptance of the answer and then took off running.

--

"AHHH!!" A child screamed, backing away as the giant, white-masked gorilla like creature snarled, glaring down at it with piercing yellow eyes on black. It howled before going down to dive.

"Ye Lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, The sea barrier surges, March on to the south! Way of Destruction number 33, Shot of Red Fire!" A blast slammed into the hollow, it letting out a screech of pain as it jumped away. Gaara looked to the sky and saw several other hollow coming.

"Shit." He now held his palm up towards the sky, Kazesuna taking his left eye to divert them with the sand. A large number of the villagers were frozen in place as the saw the redhead and heard his voice. "Ye Lord! Mask of flesh and bone, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, Upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Way of Destruction Number 31, Blue Fire, Crash Down!" No light was seen, but a large explosion took place and half the count of hollows were gone. However, now he drew his sword.

"Roar across the endless deserts and reconcile in the endless destruction with your brethren, Kazesuna no Tanuki!" His sword turned to the spear, and there was now no doubt that it was their leader that had died three years past. He met the hollows head on, several hundred feet in the air, and each of them were through in no time. Finally, he managed to dispatch the adjuchas and returned to normal level, sealing the zanpakuto as Temari and Kankurou entered with Baki, the other ninja, and the Mod soul in tow.

"Gaara, what was the situation?" Kankurou asked sternly.

"There was a mini invasion of hollows. However, the purification of their souls was carried through successfully and no one was hurt."

"Godaime!"

"Godaime-sama!" The people crowded around in a huge crowd, and those who left to cower in their houses came out, asked what happened and then joined the crowd upon learning of the "resurrection" of their old Kazekage.

"MOVE ASIDE!" A voice snarled, and as they complied there walked through Matsuri. Her eyes shot wide open seeing Gaara, who had covered his left eye with his hand.

"Masturi?..." She then walked forward shakily, before landing a sucker punch, sending him on the floor before he stood up, using both hands but closing his eye still.

"You-YOU DIED! YOU DIED AND YOU NEVER SAID GOODBYE TO YOUR CITY, YOUR FAMILY!" She cried. "You never said goodbye to me or any of your subordinates!"

"...I'm sorry Matsuri. And, truth be honest, its only out of luck and unluckiness that I've managed to return here, even if for only a little while. Otherwise I would still be fishing and playing shogi with Yashamaru in the afterlife." The two siblings casted Gaara a stunned glance, but he gave no explanation. "It was because I was strong, because I was cursed in this life that I managed to return...who would've thought?"

"I was sent back here to carry out my own mission from higher-ups." He turned, and then pointed at the symbol on his vest. "Captain of the 9th Squad of the Gotei 13, the forces of the afterlife." Then he turned back.

"You mentioned Yashmamaru..." Gaara's face lifted slightly, but he still refused to open his eye.

"I forgot! Mother, father, and Yashmaru told me to tell you hi and that they are proud of you before I left on this mission." They seemed light-headed.

"But when did you get on even terms with them?"

"I had three years to know them..." He replied simply. "You know, once your dead you actually realize what you've done wrong and only then can you actually right yourself."

"Why are you covering your eye?" Matsuri now asked, noticing how the left eye had yet to open. His calm seemed to falter under a slight emotional pain.

"I have reasons." He replied. His gigai then walked over, completely ignoring the stunned glances.

"And I assume that the mod soul didn't give you any trouble?" Gaara asked. Temari and Kankurou shook their heads. "Good." He then entered the body once more, luckily not getting stuck, and opened both of his eyes.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to being in a gigai. I wonder if its the fact that its not a real body or just me that makes it so cramped." He rolled his shoulders now, and stretched his arm. However, now the crowd parted to reveal an elderly woman, whom the former-Kazekage instantly recognized.

"Chiyo-baasama!" She simply stared forward at the boy before bowing her head.

"Even after so long, Gaara, I still regret my failure to revive you."

"No, it wasn't your failure. Actually, it was unconsciously my fault." Gaara replied. The citizens did not speak until Temari asked,

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I was frantic when I realized I was dead." He began. "I was trapped inside my body and I couldn't move at all...Naturally I searched for an escape. And in order to search I unconsciously triggered the sealed reiryoku which all living beings have, to make them human. And when she tried to revive me using chakra, the reiryoku instantly negated it. Your resurrection technique, Chiyo-baasama, is made to seal the soul back to its body. However, the reiryoku made it so that my soul was attached to your chakra like a magnet, separating my soul permanently from my old body."

"So...you technically killed yourself is what you're saying..." Kankurou summarized.

"No, I just helped." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Now...is there somewhere cheep to buy something to eat? I'm hungry and Ichigo took all my money before we left Soul Society in a game of poker."

"...How are you able to switch from the topic of your death to food so easily?!" One citizen asked, rather annoyed and disturbed at the quick transition and light-hearted attitude of their past Kazekage.

"Do you think that anyone would like to talk about their own death for too long?" Gaara asked, demeanor now rather cold as he then shunpo'ed away.

"Well, it looks like you pissed him off." And now Temari and Kankurou turned to see Ichigo right behind them. He was in his gigai.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HERE SO QUICKLY??!! Weren't you in Konoha!?!"

"Lets see...Shunpo is five times faster then the fastest ninja - statistics were given by Gaara. Captain Shunpo? Its potential is five times faster than normal shunpo. ...Captain's Shunpo plus bankai because I was being followed by hollow and I needed to get rid of them quickly because I was ordered to get here ASAP by the scary blond woman that runs that other village? Well...Lets just say that it didn't take me an hour to get here. Especially with the fact standing that I am one of the fastest shunpo users, but not the fastest...Yoruichi is scary like that. Gaara is actually the captain with the slowest shunpo. And I even had to carry my gigai with me! God that's annoying!" He then noted the group of the citizens standing there. "Um...Hi? I'm another Shinigami, like Gaara...My name's Ichigo...and I'm stationed here...and I'm the fifth Squad captain. Nice to meet you!"

"Jeez, are you Shinigami always so subtle?"

"Bah, I could be more subtle but I didn't want to be." Was Ichigo's reply. "What did that guy say to piss Gaara off so badly anyways?"

"He asked him how he could switch away from the topic of his death so easily." Temari replied, and Ichigo significantly stiffened.

"The thing is a Shinigami doesn't talk about his past life's end. It is obviously not a fond memory. If you were dead and you had to talk about something that took you away from the ones you cared for and loved...How do you think you'd feel? Rule number one when it comes to us Shinigami - NEVER ask ANYTHING related to our death."

"Clear out!" Temari ordered, and they reluctantly did so, the citizen bowed his head low in apology before scurrying away with the lot of them.

"Do you want me to go get Mr. Broody?" Ichigo asked. "He's extremely sloppy to control his reiatsu when he's pissed off...worse than me, its a feat!"

"Well, he normally killed someone when he was angry before experiencing an epiphany at the age of 13."

"Ah, that might explain something..." Ichigo mused.

"But putting that aside, do you think you could?" The carrot top nodded and then shunpo'ed away.

--

Gaara stood in the desert, the sand raging around him in a colorful maelstrom that mixed with the bleeding red of the sun and the black of the quickly descending night sky.

"Gaara!" He turned to see Ichigo in his gigai.

"What is it?" He asked darkly.

"Your siblings are worried about you. No one here understands anything about us Shinigami, understand that."

"They didn't understand anything about jinchuuriki either." Gaara mumbled dryly.

"But you can't blame them... They are only human!" The red head finally sighed.

"You're right..." He turned. "Let's go back."

Ichigo smiled and nodded. "Of course I'm right! I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, I'm always right!"

"Shut up Kurosaki." Gaara growled. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

Ichigo chuckled nervously, but they left nevertheless.

--

Later that night, Gaara sat on the roof, watching the moon of the desert in contentment. Baki watched from within the Kazekage tower.

"I wonder how Gaara grew so light-hearted while here he was always so…so stiff…" Baki wondered to himself.

"We treated him like he was one of us in Soul Society, which may be different than he was treated here." Was the reply from Ichigo. Baki rounded around and saw the brown eyed shinigami.

"And you are…?" Baki asked.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, Fifth Squad Captain of the Gotei 13, the organization Gaara is a captain of as well." Was the reply.

"I see…" Baki looked down. "No, we didn't exactly treat him human for the most time he was alive…He was the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi no Shukaku…So people naturally looked him as a monster."

"We gave him pats on the back, we pulled pranks on each other, we fought hollows side by side, we drank sake and got drunk amongst each other, we argued, we had childish battles amongst each other that ended in us all laughing, we all complained about the paperwork we had to do…That is, to say me and others in Soul Society whom he let close. Also my friends from the other world that existed treated him like this…People only long to feel like everyone else. Alienation, ostracizing, whatever you call it is the wrong approach to forming a person."

Ichigo then left the older ninja to his thoughts.

_Maybe he and his friends had the right idea…_


	8. Filler Chap: Fun With Video Cameras

**THIS IS A FILLER CHAPTER - the first half is somewhat related to the plot, after that you can obviously tell...I'm so freaking sorry...oh yeah, and there's some crack and something about Toshirou going on a drunk rampage.**

**BEWARE.**

**--****MEETING OF SHINIGAMI: NARUTO WORLD****--**

"Okay...so...is this thing working?" Gaara tapped the lens of the video camera that was taping. A little sand shuffled outside, but aside from that it was virtually lifeless...well, everyone was asleep, it was their break day.

"You're not supposed to do that." Ichigo sat on a random chair in the room they somehow found theirselves in. Gaara frowned at him and continued to tap the lens.

"No, he's right." Renji spoke up. "You're probably going to give Toshirou a head ache."

The one holding the video-camera was indeed a very agitated Hitsugaya. He twitched slightly with an annoyed, sacrastic smile on his face as his eye occasionally twitched. "Two things. One, you're too late, the camera has already hit my nose enough times to induce a quite large migraine, and two, call me that again and you're frozen." Now he handed the camera off to Ichigo, who dropped it.

"You dropped it!" Toshirou shouted. "Why did you drop it?!"

"It wasn't my fault that your camera is crappy!" Now Ichigo found his left foot frozen. His eyebrow raised.

"Why my left foot?"

Toshirou wiped his nose. "My aim got knocked off because I sneezed."

"So what are we doing anyways?" Rukia entered the room, agitated as she spoke trying to fit her outfit on her gigai without the sleeves slipping or something inappropiate being shown.

"The Shinigami Women's Association asked for a film of sorts to get a feel of the life of a person in this world." Gaara said. "God they freak me out..."

"Did they kidnap you and dress you in an academy uniform too?" Gaara was given a sympathetic look from the snowy-haired shinigami.

"But we're getting off-topic." Ichigo said. "Anyways...Gaara-taichou, take it away."

"Me? Why me?" He asked, glaring at Ichigo.

"Because you were from this world."

"...I hate you all." He growled. "Here, you don't look weird even if your soul is messed up. The weirdest thing you can see here is either a demon or Orochimaru, this one enemy..." He held up a photo from a book.

"Wait, he's in a book? But isn't he-"

"It's a bingo-book, dumb-ass." Gaara growled, eye twitching.

"Dude...his looks scream pedophile." Renji commented. Silent stares. "What?! Its true!"

"But _anyways_...We have special abilities, called jutsu, which are fueled by chakra. The only beings on this plane of existence that don't have any reiryoku are bijuu, which are tailed chakra demons that take the form of an animal familiar." Now Gaara had launched off into a lengthy dialogue before Ichigo interrupted.

"Oh...I just realized something...the batteries popped out when I dropped it..."

And Ichigo, a week later, was still trying to remove sand from places he daren't speak of.

**--****BACK-STAGE--**

Somewhere far, far away - well, actually in the gloomy, rainy north-west that had recieved snow in the spring somehow - a brown haired character sat in a fetal position in a very, very dark room. And somehow, Naruto, Minato and Tsunade found themselves sitting in front of her.

"...How did the writer get to be such a fucking mess?" Naruto asked his father, a confused look on his face. Minato shrugged.

"Why the hell am I here anyways?" Tsunade asked. "There's nothing for me to do."

"Apparently, from what I can tell, you just have to stand there and look pretty." Minato said non-chalantly.

Now Naruto coughed into his hand, "Mustbeahardfeatforyougranny."

And Sno, the author and a leecher of several Sims 2 mod-websites, now stared with a twitching eye. "You people are killing my bedroom..." Now, she entered an "OTL" position. "You people aren't making things easier..."

"What's wrong with her anyways?" Naruto asked now, apparently forgetting that he had already asked that.

"...You already asked that." Minato commented dully.

"She's currently stuck in the middle of a bad family crisis from what I hear..." Tsunade said, reading a cue card she saw in the corner of the room.

Sno's eye twitched. "And you needed a cue card to read that when you just heard a door slamming and some screaming in the hall-way."

"Well we were just beating the shit out of each other, what do you expect from us?" She shrugged.

"Touché."

And now Hitsugaya bounded into the room, screaming, "HYORINMARU IS A PRETTY BALLERINA!" And the three previous occupants of the room stifled laughter, except for Sno, who simply sat there and witnessed the destruction of her room.

"Sorry, I needed to lighten the mood so I spike Hitsugaya-taichou's tea." Gaara said.

"...Did you hit your head or something when you died?" Naruto asked, knocking on Gaara's forehead. He forced a grin on his face before smacking Naruto's head. "Hey! What was that for!?"

"That was for being an idiot."

"HEY!"

Now Sno interrupted again. "What are you doing in my room anyways?! I thought you weren't real!"

"No, we aren't, you just need to lay off the chocolate." Ichigo said, entering the room as well.

-

And Sno shot up from her bed, eyes wide. She ran a hand through her hair.

"Dude. I really _do_ need to lay off the chocolate."

--

**Yes, I give you permission to kill me for disappointing you all...but I _am_ going through a family crisis that killed the majority of my muse and my attention span. I'm so exhausted, but I have to go do my homework now... x_x**


	9. Enter The Big Breasted Menace!

**I'm still in a pretty crappy mood, but I decided to whip something up until I rekindle my muse...it has been revived, but very picky...The contents of the previous filler chapter do NOT apply to the story, just to let y'all know.**

**BTW - I love the Linkin Park Piano instrumentals.**

--

Gaara woke that next morning to descover that he was no longer on the roof. In fact, he realized with a sudden nonstalgia of his past life that he was in his old room, everything left untouched but actually the room being quite clean. He stretched and yawned loudly, glad that there was no longer Shukaku, the demon, that kept him up all night. Rather, there was Kazesuna greeting him as he had done for the past three years. Sighing, he mused over the changes in himself as a whole since he left home.

He let a short laugh escape him as he stood in the bathroom, analyzing the facsimile of his old body. He had encountered what he dubbed a "Naruto change". Vaguely remembering the fact of Naruto explaining his life in a nutshell during the Chuunin Exams when they were thirteen and that change had led him to this naming. Now, he found himself more light-hearted, less dull and antisocial and...happy. He entered the shower and basked in the warmth that somehow washed away the sweat that shined his body from the humid morning, and he chuckled at the irony that he, once of this same desert, was acting akin to a slab of ice in a mircowave. Once he stepped out a fresh wave hit him, and then he realized, as he stepped out in nothing but a towel that it was his sister that had opened the windows, allowing the occasional drift of sand carried on the breeze into the room. She turned to see him, and was shocked for a moment before she smiled.

"Good morning Gaara...I had almost thought that the past two days were a dream."

Gaara laughed slightly. "That's understandable. But...I have one question. How did I get back here? I thought I fell asleep on the roof." She chuckled slightly.

"Ichigo brought you back here slung over his shoulder. It was quite a shock for us, actually." He rose an eyebrow at the last statement.

Temari now poked his forehead. "Remember, boke, that you never _slept_ when you were alive because of Shukaku."

"Well, luckily he's Kazesuna now." Now her eyebrow rose and he covered his mouth. "Oops...I wasn't meaning to tell you that..."

"Who is Kazesuna?" She asked. He held up his sword.

"My zanpakuto. It's weird...but we're literally connected as one soul." He shrugged. "We melded over the years because originally your zanpakuto is part of your soul." There was an awkward silence before he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Um...If you wouldn't mind I need to get dressed..."

She paused and then noted that he was dripping wet and only wearing a towel around his waist. "Oh, sorry...I forgot you took a shower. But anyways, I'm making breakfast...want any?"

"What're you making?" He asked.

She smiled. "Kankurou asked for me to make pancakes because its Saturday."

"Saturday? Oh, right...Kazekage's day off."

And she left the boy, a bittersweet feeling in her chest that left her wiping a tear from her eye.

--

Kankurou awoke groggily, yawning loudly as he rolled over in his bed, basking in the warmth as he found himself unusually cold that day. As he made to go back to bed, he started sniffing. The smell of pancakes roused him from his sleep, leaving him trudging to the kitchen and rubbing his eyes. Temari looked up from the stove, and smiled again.

"Morning sleepy-head." He opened one eye slightly, still half-asleep and confused by her perkiness.

He yawned yet again and laid his head on the table. "You're never so perky in the morning...what's up? Did you get to see Baki utterly humiliate himself by getting drunk off his ass and start singing that stupid Llama song or something?" She snorted at the idea.

"No, but that would be very amusing. The reason is right in front of you." Now Kankurou shook himself a little more awake to see Gaara staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Gaara!" He jumped out of his seat, almost suffering from a heart attack. "I thought you were dead! Or am I still dreaming?"

Gaara simply turned to give a look to Temari, who was stifling laughter before Gaara also chuckled a little, before the two siblings broke into a fit of laughter at Kankurou's confusion. "What's going on here?! I'm being serious!" He cried.

"You don't remember! Man, the look on your face!" Temari cried, her eyes watering from all the laughter. And then the memories crashed in once he was fully awake.

"...Oh...Sorry Gaara..."

"I expected that. You were half-asleep. But still, it _was_ funny."

"Oh? What's this? Gaara-taichou relaxing! Man, where's a camera when you need it?!" They now saw Ichigo sitting in the window sill, a mischeivous cat-like smile on his face. However, that was before the sand grabbed his leg and hung him upside-down. Spluttering indignantly, he thrashed around, shouting, "Cut it out dammit!"

Gaara mocked surprise. "OH! I'm sorry Kurosaki, I thought you were a rogue ninja."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." He now huffed with narrowed eyes as finally the boy dropped him rather harshly on the tiled floor. Grumbling, he gingerly rubbed his sore back-side, before standing and stretching.

"But really, why are you here?"

"Well, you don't expect me to let so much sand get in my face do you?" He asked. "Besides, Namikaze-taichou sent us a Hell Butterfly with new information." He nodded as the butterfly entered and then landed on his finger.

_"There have been a noticed change in Aizen's motives. A majority of his attention is now diverted to the shinobi world. As a result, Hitsugaya-taichou will be redirected to the current location of Sabaku-taichou and Kurosaki-taichou to rendezvous, Matsumoto-fukutaichou will be sent to Hitsugaya-taichou's location, Ikkaku and Yumichika will be sent to Konoha, and according to Namikaze-taichou, there will be a meeting of the village leaders held in a weeks time - as such, Hitsugaya-taichou and Matsumoto-fukutaichou will only leave upon the ending of such meeting."_

"Well Kankurou, looks like there is a Kage meeting for you to attend in a week." They looked at Gaara oddly.

"How do you?..."

"Kazekage-sama!" A sand shinobi entered the room, holding a scroll. "Baki-sama sent this to you." He then looked and saw the two shinigami. "G-Godaime-sama!" But then he bowed his head. "Gomen, I will be taking my leave." And after Gaara took hold of the scroll, the ninja left.

"Well, news of your return has likely spread all across Suna." Temari began dully. "But...on the other hand...you were right...!" They had only then just looked over the scroll.

"Shinigami communication is more efficient and faster due to the fact that only Shinigami can understand the Hell Butterfly's messages." He said. Then, the red-head lifted the butterfly to eye level and stared at it for a moment. "Now go!" Then he sent the butterfly away, and it flew out the window.

"What did you say?" Ichigo asked plainly. "I wasn't paying attention to catch the damn thing."

"We're going to be leaving in three days, so I sent the message to warn them of a raging strawberry travelling several hundreds of miles per hour...damn, and I just got here too." Sighing, he shrugged. "The life of a Shinigami..."

--

And it was as it turned out - they engaged in an uneventful trip to return to where they had been only several days before. Upon entry, Hitsugaya was smoothered in a large bust of a bubbly orange-haired female.

"Taichou~!" She grinned heartily as Hitsugaya muffled something as he struggled violently against the death grip of his vice-captain, most likely "I CAN'T BREATHE". She pulled away and he took in a large gulp of air.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?!" And now he got a full look of her, and twitched. "And people thought your outfit was revealing before."

She used mesh. Lots. And lots. Of mesh. She had a full mesh shirt under a skimpy dark blue tank shirt (that failed to cover fully her stomach and also had a low neck-line), which extended all the way to her black gloves. She wore a white mini-skirt with black short-shorts underneath and thigh-high ninja boots. And meeting the boots were more mesh.

"Dude...Hot babe!" Kankurou said, eyes wide as he let out a long whistle. "Nice figure." She smiled.

"Surprisingly, the men I've met in the ninja world are more respectable."

"No, there are perverts around here, I assure you." Gaara said. "Example...this one guy...friend of Naruto...Hmm...can't remember his name."

"Jiraiya?" Temari suggested. He snapped his fingers in realization.

"Yeah! That's it. Jiraiya." But then he saw the shinobi that hadn't been there earlier because they'd been on missions - Lee, Neji, Tenten, Shino, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, and Chouji; all had been on several different missions, and as such were wide-eyed when they saw him.

"Is that?..." Naruto, who had also been in the group - the group was all of the Konoha 11, plus Sai - seemed a little shocked.

"Oops, I forgot to tell you about that, didn't I?" They gave him a look. But then Shikamaru and Sakura too shrugged slightly.

"We also forgot." But aside from that, Naruto came up to him and dragged him over, despite his minor protests.

"Gaara's back...kind of." He felt a little awkward around them, especially since he did not know them too well. Neji rose an eyebrow.

"Kind of? What do you mean _kind of_?"

"The fact that he's still dead." Now Hitsugaya, tired of being smothered by Matsumoto, walked over to their company.

"You - You're that boy -"

"The one that sent me to Soul Society, Hitsugaya Toshirou. The current situation is actually spiraling downward at this point." Gaara said, filling in for the snowy-haired captain.

"Current situation?" Gaara's eyes rolled.

"Naruto...you haven't...told them...anything..." He growled, having now grabbed his collar. Naruto chuckled nervously.

"Ehe...I haven't gotten around to it..." Then a polite cough interrupted them. They looked up to see Minato standing there. They were standing, gaping, while staring at the unforgettable person.

"Sabaku-taichou, you have a Hell Butterfly message addressed to you."

"Hi dad!" Naruto said, smiling. Gaara allowed the butterfly to land on his finger, but instantly repeled, his eyes wide and unfocused and a twitching, aggravated semi-amused look on his face before collapsing on the floor in a heap, mumbling what barely could be interpreted as curses towards the blond captain.

"What happened to him?!" Naruto asked. Analyzing the boy for a moment, Minato started laughing.

"Ah, its nothing. He's just temporarily been deafened by one of his mothers rants." Now Gaara slowly picked himself back up, still dazed with a strange ringing in his ears.

"Ow...Note to self...don't forget to write to parents...It comes with cruel and unusual punishment..." He gingerly rubbed his head.

"Aside from that, the meeting is going to start soon!" Matsumoto had now come over, smiling, and then she saw Gaara. She ignored the wolf-whistle of Kiba as she approached the red-head, who had begun to back away slowly. "Gaara-kun!" She hugged him too - resulting that his face was burried within the killer cleavage. "I miss my drinking buddy!" He struggled violently as Hitsugaya had done, and also recieved a sympathetic look from the shorter shinigami.

"Matsumoto..." Hitsugaya began. Gaara continued to struggle, but his efforts were dwindling.

"Ha~i, taichou?" She asked coyly.

"Please let go of Gaara-san, I fear he's choking to his second death." She did as she was told and Gaara immediately began gasping for air again, dizziness overclouding him.

"Dammit...Ran....what are you trying to do...kill me?"

"Gomen!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, _drinking buddy_? What have you not told us about yet little brother?" Temari and Kankurou loomed over their third sibling, who chuckled sheepishly.

"I'm...going over there now..." He instantly made to depart; however, his siblings caught his coat. He sighed, knowing they would never leave him alone otherwise.

"Oh, don't worry Gaara-kun, I can speak." Matsumoto said. "Shortly after he came to Soul Society and was granted full captaincy, I noted how he was...well, stiff like a board. He never relaxed. Thus, I introduced him to the world of alcohol. He opened up pretty easily after that. Ichigo was actually pleased at the progress I made with this kid - he was almost as bad as Hitsugaya! But luckily we managed to pull him in too - sand does its wonders once in a while."

"...You're a light-weight?" Gaara scowled at his elder brother.

"Shut up."

"_You_ drink alcohol?" Naruto asked, wide-eyed as well.

"....Shut up." He now trudged away.

"Even though I never knew him too well..." Neji began, slowly. "Its obvious that he's changed...drastically."

"Yeah, like Naruto-drastic." Kiba added.

"HEY!" Naruto cried, seeming extremely offended, but obviously exaggerating it.

"We treated him like a human. Not a weapon, or monster. Ostracizing is the wrong way to creating a person, and it leaves them messed up for a while. We only fixed him." Ichigo said. "The exact same thing that I said to that Baki guy - he was wondering the same thing a few days ago."

"The Gaara you see now - the sarcastic, antagonistic, but light-hearted, tempered and rather enjoyable Gaara you see now - is the Gaara that should have existed from the start." Now even the shinigami were looking at him oddly.

"Ichigo...did you finally grow a brain?" Renji had now appeared, and was asking this of the other male. However, this led very quickly to an escalating fist fight. Though, the further extension of the fight was quelled with Hitsugaya freezing them with Hyorinmaru.

"Ak! Toshirou, why the hell-" The using of his first name just led to more ice. Finally, Hitsugaya breathed out calmly, and relieved.

"Finally, no more annoyances." Then he followed in Gaara's direction while Matsumoto used Haineko to thaw out the ice.

"Ja! We'll introduce ourselves and get to know each other later, we have to attend that meeting!" Matsumoto said, and with that, they were off.

"Dude...normally I wouldn't say this...but _man_, they're crazy!" Kiba said.

"WE HEARD THAT!" Was a distant shout. Whether it was Gaara or Hitsugaya, it was unsure.

One thing was for certain, though. Well, several. One; the environment in the ninja world did crazy things to the shinigami. Two; Gaara certainly had changed, and with the current knowledge of his new personality it seemed for the better. Three...

"Kiba? Yeah, I suggest you start running. You have about an hour before you have two angry Shinigami after you...and boy, can they run fast. That one guy, Kurosaki, made it to Suna from here in an hour."

Temari smirked as her words made Kiba pale.

--

**Bleh. Meeting next time. :D**


	10. Meeting Of The Kage

Whilst the group of Shinigami were beginning to shunpo to the Land of Iron, where all the Kage were said to be meeting, they distinctly heard Kiba's comment on their sanity. Both Gaara and Hitsugaya reacted oddly to this in particular. Gaara growled, his eyes darkening as Hitsugaya turned to him with an icily stoic face before both yelled out,

"WE HEARD THAT!" Ichigo turned to the two and an eyebrow rose. Then, he interrupted their current plotting of different ways of making the "despicable dog-boy suffer in ways man-kind had yet to know" with the very question that ran through the heads of all the Shinigami there except Minato.

"What's up with you two? You're acting like you've had two glasses of sake..." Of course, all the current people in the group_ knew_ what they were like when they had sake, for the group, aside from Gaara and Hitsugaya, had introduced them into the world of alcohol due to tying them down to the desks in the tenth division, stuffing a funnel in each of their mouths and making the poor souls chug until they were drunk off their asses. After that, they were a little more lenient on the alcohol. Occasionally they would join in, if only for a few sips or more. But that was beside the point. Now, Minato decided to save the day by explaining why they seemed so drastically altered as they neared the Land of Iron. _Bless shunpo!_ Minato thought drolly, as they would have had to leave earlier if they didn't have aforementioned skill.

"Well, unlike you three, Gaara, Hitsugaya and I have all been here before. This means that we've gotten over the "shock" stage, which is what you're going through and thus the reason why you're not acting out like them. Whilst I am able to cope with the massive amount of energy once again, they're still slightly overwhelmed by it... especially since they haven't had experience with this kind of feeling like I myself have. Life energy is entirely different than death energy, and while Gaara hasn't been altered drastically, personality-wise, by the energy, Hitsugaya is." They turned to him and eye-brow raises were the prominent response to his slightly confusing explanation. "Basically, Hitsugaya's drunk on the chakra here, hypothetically, while Gaara seems like he's had a few cups, if chakra was sake."

"Oh." That was basically the comment of the majority of the shinigami in the group. However, now they stopped as they arrived at the building, and then they saw two figures appear next to them.

"You're late Ikkaku, Yumichika." Minato said gruffly.

"Sorry - we got stuck in the middle of a forest and Ikkaku kept reading the map we were provided incorrectly." Yumichika replied sullenly. He had on his regular accessories he had with the shinigami outfit, but rather now had a long-sleeved dark-purple shirt whose left sleeve reached his palm. He also had on long black pants with the standard shinobi sandals.

Meanwhile, Ikkaku had a regular tank shirt with arm-guards and wrist-guards with baggy shorts that reached his knees and ninja sandals that cut off at his ankles.

"OI! Don't go blaming it on me!" Ikkaku snarled, raising a fist as the two began to argue.

"Shut up, we're here." Gaara growled, as they all arrived to the entrance of the non-ninja village. They were escorted in by the samurai there and came across the seated area of the five Kage, who all entered after they did. Each sat in their respective places. Tsunade in the Hokage section, with Kakashi and Jiraiya as her "escorts"; Another busty woman with a young boy carrying a giant sword and an older man with an eye-patch in the Mizukage's section; an elderly man with a young female and an oafish male in the Tsuchikage's section; two males, one of Caucasian ethnicity and the other of what Ichigo claimed was "African-American Ethnicity" (though the term was alien to the ninja, since there was no "America" nor an "Africa"), and a "buffed, totally crazy looking black guy" - quote Renji - in the Raikage section; and Kankuro, with Temari and Baki in the Kazekage section. Then, the leader of the Land of Iron in the moderator's section.

"Please place your hats on the table." All did so. "We are here today because the Hokage has called this meeting. I am Mifune, your moderator. The meeting will now begin."

"Now, I'll start to explain why we're here." Tsunade said. "A month ago the barrier around Konoha sounded the alarm, saying that there were intruders. My ninja went to investigate, and then a select few of the people behind Mifune-san appeared."

All eyes went to the group of shinigami that stood, and a few gasped. Tsuchikage, in particular, grew irate as his eyes landed on the blond former-Hokage.

"The Yellow Flash?" Raikage queried.

"And the former Kazekage..." Mizukage also said.

"We're no longer tied to the Shinobi Nations, you can release that hating glare at me, Tsuchikage." Minato said lightly.

"We are called soul reapers, or more famously shinigami." Rukia added, as well.

"Trust me, the news we have is not good." Gaara continued on, and then Hitsugaya took the rest.

"You have regretfully been pulled into an inter-dimensional war." The Kage looked to each other oddly, aside from Kankurou and Tsunade. "Our current enemy, Aizen, has taken an interest in your nations. He will likely be recruiting missing ninja, S-Class ninja, and even possibly enemies like Orochimaru or Akatsuki to his cause. If his goals are realized, then we are-"

"All royally fucked." Ichigo interrupted, earning a honest-to-goodness glower from the smaller captain. "He wants to play God, and this includes slaughtering the King of Soul Society, who happens to be technically "God"."

"We would suggest at this time for all the Shinobi Nations to form an alliance, to increase the strength against his men. The power of Hollows and Arrancar are not to be trifled with. They will eat your souls under a moments notice. Currently, we are "allied", so to speak, with Konoha and Suna. So we do not tread on the "terms" of this alliance, it is also once again strongly suggested." Now Yumichika spoke.

"And even then, you are all better off if your military forces are combined instead of divided." Minato continued. "If you merely stood alone, you'd be slaughtered in a moments notice with the souls of your shinobi devoured."

There was a silent pause as all the information was taken in.

"...Very well. I support this proposal." Mizukage said, her single eye scrutinizing the other Kage as if daring them to reject.

"I do too." Raikage leaned back.

"We supported it from Day One." Kankurou leaned back in his chair and Tsunade nodded as well. All eyes flew to the elderly Tsuchikage.

"...Fine." Yumichika smiled.

"Good. We will be sending you shinigami reinforcements within the next few days once our messages are patched through. Most of them will be seated officers, for we have incentive to believe that they will target mainly Konoha and Suna. Though your villages are not exempt from the possibility, which is why though you won't be getting the strongest you'll be getting numbers."

Now Ikkaku interrupted.

"That's all we got to tell you."

Mifune then stood, bowing his head.

"This meeting is adjourned."

--

**I'm sorry, I fail at life with this update. I've been so consumed for time that I haven't got to it lately. *gets on knees and bows* Sumimasen.**

**Also, please be aware that I HAVE made revisions in the story; Gaara no longer has his "New Looks". Just remember good ol' Gaara, without tattooing. The end of the 4th chapter has also been fixed, because I killed Hisagi's personality. I tried to make it more in character. *twitch***

**UPDATE(x2): I fixed a repeated part (stupid paste button e__o)**


	11. IMPORTANT NOTICE, HIATUS ALERT

**Universal note posted on ALL stories (which means if you've already read one you don't have to read the others):**

**I've been in some deep shit lately, and there are various different conflicts both personal/family and education wise. I'm slowly starting to loose sight of the plots for most of my story because the focus of my attention has been steered clear from them for so long. I get it, you're all probably pretty pissed off at me; I get the same feeling when an author of a story I like does what I'm pretty much doing now.**

**Pretty much my fanfiction account is on hiatus until I can reorganize everything plot-wise. I apologize. *bows* I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry...**

**And I really hope it doesn't come to it but I might either; A.) Abandon these, or B.) Put them up for adoption if I can't get back into my writing frenzy mode.**

**Tis iLuke, signing out~~**

**~~(Sorry for disappointing you all).**


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